The dawn air was crisp, a thin veil of mist curling above the road.
Ethan kept his eyes on the horizon as the group walked east, the soft thud of boots and the clink of gear filling the silence. They'd broken camp before first light, Marcus setting a pace that made small talk difficult.
By the time the sun had cleared the treeline, the farmstead appeared—a squat, weathered house with a half-collapsed barn, surrounded by rolling pasture. The grass near the fence was matted down, as if something heavy had passed through.
Ryan was the first to slow. "Smell that?"
Ethan caught it a second later. Copper. Thick and sharp.
A man emerged from the house before they reached the yard. His clothes were stained at the cuffs, his eyes hollow from lack of sleep.
"You the guild team?" he asked, voice hoarse.
Marcus stepped forward. "We are. Tell us what happened."
The man's gaze darted toward the barn. "Two nights ago, something took three of my cows. No noise, no signs of a fight. Just blood—pools of it. Found the fourth one last night. Same thing. My boy says he saw shadows moving in the field, but…" He trailed off, shaking his head.
Selene moved past him toward the barn without asking permission, Lily at her side.
Inside, the smell hit like a wall. The floorboards were dark, sticky in patches. Flies droned lazily in the corners.
Ethan crouched beside one of the stains, running his fingers just above it. "Still damp."
Lily knelt beside him, her hands hovering over the stain as a faint green light flickered at her fingertips. "The blood's… wrong. It's not just the cow's. There's something else mixed in."
"Dark spawn?" Ryan asked from the doorway.
She shook her head. "I've never felt this before."
Selene straightened from where she'd been examining the beams. "Claw marks. Small at first glance, but deep. Whatever did this had strength—and precision."
They followed the trail outside, past the broken fence and into the tall grass. The tracks were strange—spaced unevenly, as if the creature had too many limbs to walk properly.
Marcus crouched to study them. "These aren't wolf prints. And they're not fresh. Whatever did this left before the sun rose."
Ethan squinted at the pattern. "It's like… the same shape repeats, but not in the same order. Almost like it was walking sideways sometimes."
Ryan's gaze flicked to him. "You've seen this before?"
"No," Ethan admitted. "But it doesn't feel random."
The trail led to a small copse of trees. The grass here was flattened in a circle, and at the center lay something that made Ethan's stomach twist—an arrangement of stones, placed deliberately, each smeared with blood.
Selene's voice was quiet. "This isn't feeding. It's a message."
"A message to who?" Clara asked.
Marcus didn't answer immediately. He moved closer, scanning the stones. "Not to us. Which means we're not the ones they're talking to."
They left the site untouched, marking it for the guild's record. The farmer didn't protest when Marcus told him they couldn't promise the threat was gone—just nodded, eyes distant.
As they walked back toward the city road, Ethan found himself beside Lily.
"You think they'll come back?" he asked.
She looked ahead, her expression unreadable. "Things like that don't just stop. They change. They learn."
Her words lingered in his head all the way back to camp that night.
That evening, when the others had drifted to their bedrolls, Ethan sat apart, staring into the fire.
[System Notification]
EXP Amplification Triggered — Multiplier: 6x
The familiar pulse of energy warmed his veins, subtle but steady.
"You waited until now?" he murmured under his breath.
Your body was in motion. Optimal absorption requires rest.
Ethan smirked faintly. "And here I thought you just liked making me nervous."
I am not capable of preference. Only efficiency.
He shook his head. "Yeah. Sure."
But in the back of his mind, a quiet thought took root—if this was just the beginning, what was strong enough to leave messages in blood? And why did it feel like someone, somewhere, wanted him to find them?